Walk on most any beach in Grays Harbor, Willapa Bay or Puget Sound at this time of year and you will see green blades of eelgrass, the red raspy-textured Turkish Towel or the pinkish narrow branches of Succulent Seaweed washed ashore at the tide line. It is winter, and many…
Posts published in “–”
There were many trails of tears all over North America of indigenous peoples forcibly removed by government forces. The indigenous peoples who are making their way up from the southern hemisphere are a continuation of the Trail of Tears. —Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise Prologue, xv Fleeing their countries Children,…
The artesian well between Jefferson and Adams off 5th street has great meaning for locals. Flowing indirectly from the Salish Sea, it’s the primary water source for thousands of people who share the ritual of filling (or waiting to fill) their water jugs every week. The water that flows freely day and night...
Discover the physical and human imprint of Western Washington’s military bases with a group of Evergreen students In A People’s Geography of American Empire, students at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington looked at US expansion from Manifest Destiny and overseas imperial conquests, to present-day resource wars. The arc of…
“The Afghanistan Papers” is a bright, shining lie by omission. Yes, our military and civilian leaders lied to us about Afghanistan. But they could never have spread their murderous BS—thousands of US soldiers and tens of thousands of Afghans killed, trillions of dollars wasted—without media organizations like the Washington Post,…
This month's poem by Ryan Furbish....
Olympia Assembly advocates a radical vision for our town – one which includes an emphasis on direct democracy and city governance by the people themselves, as well as cooperation amongst neighbors to meet our needs when the established system fails us. We assert the right of all members of our…
Lacey Veterans’ Hub My first experience in a courtroom was filled with anxiety due to the punitive behavior of a judge who was harsh with everyone present. At the second hearing, after learning I was a veteran, the same judge completely flipped to a supportive role. This was comforting but…
[Ed note: “Goni the Gringo” was the nickname for a Bolivian president who fled to the US in 2003 after ushering in a brutal repression in that country.] Special to Works in Progress. Until just 20 years ago, in our sister republic of Bolivia, the vast majority of its 6,723,045…
Hasta hace apenas 20 años, en la hermana Bolivia la inmensa mayoría de su población (de seis millones 723.045 habitantes) estuvo excluida de todos los aspectos del llamado “convivir nacional”, es decir, de la educación, de los beneficios de su economía, de los servicios de salud, de la seguridad social,…
Peacemaker Award • Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Day • Community Resources, Education & Volunteer Opportunities • Uprisings • State of the Community • PiPE benefit • Theater • Olympia Mutual Aid Partnership • Movies with a message • Homeless Housing Hub • Engagement with your Union • More...
On October 8, at the steps of City Hall, a gathering of local Olympia renters rallied, hoisted signs and shouted chants asking the city to address barriers that make renting unaffordable for many. Protestors were advocating for a fresh ordinance that regulates fees and security deposits, known as a move-in…
This month's theme is winners and losers. For one very rich man there must be at least five hundred poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many. The affluence of the rich excites the indignation of the poor, who are often both driven by want, and prompted by envy, to invade his possessions....
The crime of conscience. In June, WIP reported on the nine peace activists who commemorated the original anti-war intent of Mother’s Day by protesting against the nuclear-armed Trident subs parked in Kitsap County. One of the demonstrators James Manista, “crossed the blue line” and was charged under US Code #1382,…
“Treat the whole family.” This is one of the most important things Izzy Baldo learned in nursing school. It’s always at the front of her mind. But over the years, she’s realized it’s easier said than done. As a young nurse working in oncology, Izzy was struck by the struggles…
In 2015 commissioners at the Port of Olympia adopted a set of financial measures to set goals and track the performance to those goals. If ever the Port of Olympia is going to achieve fiscal soundness, this is sorely needed. The goals were aspirational in that they strove to improve…
In October, Olympia’s longtime restaurant and performance venue, Le Voyeur, became the latest business to transition from private ownership to the co-operative business model. The club joins a growing number of member and worker-owned co-operatives and collectives in Olympia. There are at least 10 cooperative businesses in Olympia with more…
The era of dam building is over and an era of fishery protection has begun. Yet the Chehalis River Basin Flood Control Zone District (FCZD) is proposing to construct a flood retention facility—a dam—near Pe Ell, Washington. This would put the Chehalis River and its fish in peril, and likely cause the Spring Chinook…
Firelands on the move for a healthy future grew up in the shadow of “timber wars,” hearing that city environmentalists were to blame for the loss of timber jobs and the growth of poverty. Since then, I have felt trapped between the fires of my own daily crises and the…
Olympia City Manager Steve Hall and his City Council are giving Walker John, perhaps the City’s biggest welfare recipient, another 8-year tax exemption on a new downtown building. This time it is for Mr. John’s 48 unit Annie’s Artists Flats at 322 5th Avenue. The Final Certificate of Tax Exemption…
Boardwalk is a 284-unit property is a vital source of affordable housing for seniors in our community. The project came via the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program (LIHTC) funded by the federal government and allocated to states. The owner of Boardwalk is Capital Way Associates Limited Partnership. SHAG (now…
Anti-union ICE raids The callous cruelty of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was on full display when the agency rounded up 680 immigrant workers at seven chicken processing plants across Mississippi on August 7. The raids, possibly the largest ever, inflicted mayhem on families on the first day of the…
For a generation and more, the 9.4 acres of land in this photo on Olympia’s westside were covered with trees. This is a strip of land between an area developed in the late ‘90s and the tax-generating Auto Mall. This stand of mature trees ensured that heavy rains would be…
Dana Walker, who writes the blog Thunderbolt, spent 10 days in September on a ‘working vacation’ helping Rick Fellows drive his Crown Coach stuffed with what turned out to be 15 mostly young anarchists from Portland and Olympia to Detroit for the Congress of Municipal Movements, sponsored by Symbiosis. Symbiosis…
No doubt there will be free societies in the future as there have been in the past,” writes the philosopher John Gray in Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals. But they will be rare, and variations on anarchy and tyranny will be the norm. The needs that are…